China’s Boom Has Westerners Wary

The Pew Global Attitudes Project surveyed more than 24,000 people in 24 countries and found that worry is increasing regarding China’s growing military and economic power, influence on other nations, its impact on the environment, and its stance on human rights.

Many people in Western Europe “believe either that China has already replaced the United States as the world’s leading superpower or that it will at some point replace the United States,” according to the report.

China’s currency, the yuan, has been hitting record highs against the dollar, and a Chinese economist was recently named chief economist of the World Bank. Still, public perception does not yet match reality, say analysts quoted by the International Herald Tribune.

“Most people don’t have accurate information,” said Jerome Cohen of the Council on Foreign Relations. “My impression is that while China has made remarkable progress and is having an increasing economic impact on the world, it is a long way from replacing the United States.”

A poll found that favorable views of China have fallen since last year in nine of 21 countries surveyed. The timing of the poll may have been a factor, however, as it was conducted soon after civil unrest broke out in Tibet in March.

Recent events such as the Sichuan earthquake and demonstrations during the Olympic torch relay have also had an effect.

“Already 2008 has proved a tumultuous year in terms of global perceptions of China, and there are still 59 days to go until the Beijing Olympics,” reports The Guardian. “The world is having a crash course on China.”

Assuming that China's economy grows indefinitely at 7 percent, while the U.S. economy continues to grow “at its historical rate of 3.5 percent,” German newspaper editor Josef Joffe says that China’s gross domestic product would total $12 trillion by 2028, below the projected U.S. total of $28 trillion.

The Economist examines the implications of China’s rise on its relationship with the European Union, and what deepening ties between the two entities will mean for America. “So should America be worried? In a word, no. It is true that China talks about multilateralism a lot. … But multilateralism means different things to Chinese and Europeans.”

The West should “renounce arrogance as well as patronizing moral and political preaching” in its attitude toward China, warned former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt last week while speaking at the German Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank in Berlin.

China should work more cooperatively with its neighbors, said Defense Secretary Robert Gates in May. But he stopped short of directly criticizing the nation, instead referring to an unnamed country’s use of “coercive diplomacy and other pressures” and attempt to claim the South China Sea.

Current conditions in China may lead to more jobs in North America, Home Depot chief executive Frank Blake said last week. The rising yuan, higher pay for workers and $136-a-barrel oil have made some products too expensive to make in China. The home-improvement behemoth, which imports about 13 percent of the goods it sells, is looking for factories in the United States, Mexico and Canada, Blake said.

Overseas Chinese, many of whom fled the country due to poverty, are starting to take pride in the rise in status and wealth of their homeland. The diaspora is a longtime fixture in many countries, and includes a diverse group consisting of poor and illegal migrants, students and those taking advantage of China’s economic interests in other countries.